OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To study the survival outcomes of patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the temporal bone. A secondary purpose was to evaluate the University of Pittsburgh staging system as a predictor of survival.STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review.METHODS: We performed a single-institution retrospective review of the medical charts of patients diagnosed with SCC of the temporal bone between 1945 and 2005. We identified the patients' demographic characteristics, presenting symptoms, physical examination findings, tumor histology, disease extent, treatment course, and clinical outcomes. We used the Pittsburgh staging system (2000) to determine the patients' tumor classification and disease state. We then compared the overall and disease-free survival rates between patients with early-stage versus late-stage disease.RESULTS: We identified 124 patients with SCC of the temporal bone. Of these, 71 had incident (untreated) SCC, 26 had recurrent SCC, and 27 had persistent SCC after treatment elsewhere. The 5-year overall survival rate for patients with incident SCC was 38%, and the disease-free survival rate was 60%. The overall survival rate for patients with incident SCC was similar to that for patients with persistent disease and was significantly better than that for patients with recurrent SCC (P = .008). Patients with early-stage tumors (T1 or T2) had longer overall survival than those with late-stage tumors (T3 or T4; P = .004, log-rank). The 5-year overall survival rate was 48% for patients with early-stage disease and 28% for patients with late-stage disease. Furthermore, patients with T1 tumors had significantly longer overall survival than patients with T2 tumors (P = .039) and patients with T3 and T4 tumors (P = .0008). Overall survival (OS) and disease-free interval (DFI) were improved for T2 tumors when radiotherapy was combined with surgery (OS, P = .011; DFI, P = .02). T1 tumors did not benefit in a statistically significant way with combined therapy. T3 and T4 tumors had relatively poor outcomes in spite of combined therapy. Twenty-two patients (31%) experienced a recurrence within 1 year of treatment, whereas only one patient developed recurrence after 1 year. Lymph node metastasis, facial paralysis, or involvement of the carotid artery, jugular foramen, or infratemporal fossa were not significantly associated with overall or disease-free survival.CONCLUSIONS: Patients with recurrent SCC of the temporal bone had significantly shorter overall survival and disease-free interval than patients with incident SCC. In addition, patients with early-stage disease (T1 and T2) had significantly longer overall survival and disease-free survival than patients with late-stage tumors.